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Topic: June 16, 2003, Mt Baker N Ridge - C/D Ski (Read 3369 times)
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scotteryx
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Finally decided to do this route after planning for a few months, but never got into the right frame of mind to commit. Sergio (www.sverdina.com) decided to wait for a good weather window and hit it. Other options were there but we weren't sure, i.e.
1. Ski Descent
2. One Day
After viewing other websites that documented that it was totally thesible (thanks Phil and Stanton), we decided to go for it, but we wanted to take it up a notch, and do a full ski descent from the summit down the C/D route.
We made our way up the Heliotrope TH on Sunday night and arrived at around 9pm. Sergio and I then got our sleeping arrangements all set up, and then Dan and Cory showed up a few minutes later. We talked to Cory about his recent ascent up Denali with Erden Eruc a few weeks ago, and then we all went to bed ready to get up at 12 midnight to start walking at 1230am Monday morning.
As expected, we all got about 15 minutes worth of sleep, and got started at 1230 up the trail. Once we got out of the trees there was snow for the rest of the way up. We made our way up the toe of the Coleman Glacier and decided to do the low traverse across the crevassed terrain. There were only a few crevasses on the first hump, and then we started to trend towards the North Ridge, traversing, traversing, and more traversing, even losing altitude at some points. We finally made it to the west slope of the north ridge and followed a faint path just above the saddle on the North Ridge.
We took a short break (dookey time for Scott) and then headed up towards the infamous Ice Cliff. It was looming, it was 6am, and we were all stoked to be there.
I started to move really slow, feeling ill, like the flu, and this feeling never went away, mixed in with restlessness and complete exaustion for the remainder of the day.
Dan and Cory reached the steep slopes of the ice cliff before us, set up a belay, and Dan lead out the first pitch on the less steep slope (70 degrees) as the AI 2/3 pitches did not look like fun in this terrain. Sergio and I then followed them and met up at the belay. From there we continued up and around a hanging serac, set up another belay and then up the last crux bit that was almost 90 degrees, but only for about 15 feet or so.
From then on it was moderate slopes of 35-40 degrees, but most of the ice was covered with 6 inches to 1 foot of spindrift from the summit, so we did several, several, running belays since I was the only one with anti balling plates that worked.
The running belays went on forever, as did the terrain. It never ended, and we all seemed to go slower and slower. Now it is evident why, no lunch break, not enough water. Every time we thought we might be topping out, another summit appeared. Cory and Dan finally lead out the last bit to the summit and we all arrived at 5pm, nearly 17 hours since we had left the trailhead. We all were very, very, tired. We exchanged gear, said our goodbyes, and then Sergio and I dropped in on the Roman Wall and made turns all the way down to the saddle at 9k. The corn was perfect, and our late arrival on the summit was only to our benefit for the ski down.
From the saddle down we carved some great turns all over the place, with hardly any crevasses to dodge, and glided over the ones that were getting ready to open. Once we were at high camp around 7500 feet, the snow turned into shit, with runnels causing some unpleasant terrain. We skied all the way down until we hit dirt at about 4500 feet where we joined the trail and headed down. We arrived at 830pm, a mere 2 hours from the summit. Dan and Cory arrived around 1030pm, but we did not wait for them.
The crux of the entire climb was driving home with no sleep for 36 hours.
The climb in general was incredible, one of the most technical alpine climbs I have ever done (Scared shitless in sections as the exposure is burly). The ski down was awesome, with some great turns on the Roman headwall and upper coleman. The skis added some weight we could have done w/o on the approach, but worth it in the end, but 20 hours in my Scarpa Laser with Intuition Liners was too much for me as my feet sweat so much that they were in pools of water for most of the time. The hike out was unbearable in those boots.
Why do we do this stuff?
Maybe that's another thread?
TR/images/movie to come soon at www.nwog.org
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Life is short, spray hard
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kam
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Scotteryx,
Nice report. Sounds like a really fun climb. Nice job holding out for 17 hours!...gotta love those long and hard days.
-kam
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What do you mean you didn't bring skis?
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ski_photomatt
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Posts: 252
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The spectacular upper Roosevelt and north ridge, Mt. Baker. The north ridge is on the right, casting a shadow on the Roosevelt.
Nice job on the climb Scott!
I've thought before about climbing the north ridge, but never got a serious urge, and haven't yet. Perhaps it was because, as many others, I'd only seen its profile from the Coleman. Trip reports from climbs only include photos from the ridge itself and lack a sense of scale. All that changed when we saw this view on the circumnavigation trip.
(Scott, if you would like to post a photo to this thread, I'll kindly remove this one).
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scotteryx
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Man oh man what a shot that is!!!
Can I use that for my website trip report?
Credit will be dealt, of course
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Life is short, spray hard
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scotteryx
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"Fear & Loathing on the North Ridge" is now up on my site at www.nwog.org, a movie that documents our climb and descent. Sergio also has pics up, a bit faster than I am at that, so check them out if you want at www.sverdina.com
Late
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Life is short, spray hard
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